Tag Archives: Drugs & Vice

Online gambling ban won’t stop online gambling, but will stop growth

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“The Sheldon Adelson-backed legislation to ban regulated online gambling — The Restoration of America’s Wire Act (RAWA) — is back in the spotlight thanks to the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations.  RAWA would immediately abolish the legal, state-regulated online gambling markets in New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware, where regulated online casinos directly employ hundreds of people. It will only serve to prop up unregulated markets that have none of the age verification, identity verification, consumer protection or anti-money laundering systems that regulated sites are required to utilize by law.”

http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/economy-budget/236442-online-gambling-ban-wont-stop-online-gambling-but-will

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Grading the Presidential Candidates on Marijuana Policy

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“The candidates were graded on actions they have taken and statements they have made indicating their support for ending pot prohibition, allowing legal access to medical marijuana and defending states’ rights to set their own marijuana policies.  While Democratic candidates found themselves in the middle of the road (with grades ranging from B to D), Republicans were all over the letter-grade spectrum, with Rand Paul pulling down an A- (it seems you’d have to actually support legalization to get an A grade from MPP), and two GOP candidates, Chris Christie and Rick Santorum getting flunked with Fs.”

http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2015/jul/06/report_card_grading_presidential

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Portugal’s Experiment in Drug Decriminalization Has Been a Success

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“This month, Portugal celebrates fourteen years of drug decriminalization. The grand experiment is now considered a happy success considering it was adopted out of desperation and in the face of dire warnings from proponents of the global drug war.  One picture that sums up the Portuguese success story shows that Portugal has the second lowest death rate from illegal drugs in all of Europe after experiencing one of the worst rates with prohibition. It is a happy anniversary for the Portuguese, but a scary one for all the drug warriors around the world whose incomes and power depend on continued ignorance about the effects of prohibition.”

http://www.thedailybell.com/editorials/36406/Mark-Thornton-Portugals-Experiment-in-Drug-Decriminalization-Has-Been-a-Success/

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War Veteran with PTSD Faces Life in Prison for Pot

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“US Marine Corps combat veteran Kristoffer Lewandowski, who served in three tours of duty overseas including tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, reportedly faces up to life in prison for pot charges connected to a June 2014 raid on his Geronimo, OK home that occurred after his wife and neighbors called police to get him help for a post-traumatic stress disorder flare-up. However, rather than providing mental health resources, police responding on the scene searched Lewandowski’s home for contraband and found six marijuana plants, weighing in at less than an ounce of plant matter in total, and charged him with, among other offenses, felony marijuana cultivation.”

http://truthinmedia.com/exclusive-war-veteran-with-ptsd-faces-life-in-prison-for-pot-his-wife-calls-for-help/

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Drug cops took a college kid’s savings; 13 police departments want a cut

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“Like Joseph Rivers, Charles Clarke is a young black man. And like Rivers, he lost his cash at a so-called ‘cold consent’ encounter — that is, a warrantless search voluntarily agreed to — at one of the nation’s transportation hubs. Clarke didn’t have any marijuana on him or in his baggage, so he hasn’t been charged with any drug crimes.  He was charged with resisting arrest and assaulting an officer, however, after he tried to prevent the agents from seizing his money by yelling at them and struggling with the agents when they grabbed the cash, according to the agent’s affidavit. The charges were subsequently dropped, according to his lawyers at the Institute for Justice.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/06/30/drug-cops-took-a-college-kids-life-savings-and-now-13-police-departments-want-a-cut/

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Jacob Hornberger: Wrong Message in the Ulbricht Case

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“Forrest’s draconian sentence isn’t even serving to dissuade Silk Road-type competitors from continuing the same type of operation that Ulbricht was operating. Heck, Ulbricht’s competitors and new potential competitors might well be ecstatic that Forrest has removed Ulbricht as a competitor.  What all too many federal officials, including federal judges, have is a notable lack of understanding about economic principles. Maybe that’s because economics is not taught in law school. If they had such an understanding, they would understand that the more they crack down in the drug war, the worse the problem becomes.”

http://fff.org/2015/06/04/wrong-message-ulbricht-case/

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Silk Road Founder Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life (and Death) in Prison

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“When you couple the eBay-style reputation engine with the relative anonymity of a black market, you get what we might call a ‘gray market.’ And that gray market allowed those determined to buy certain items — illegal drugs, etc. — to do so in a far, far safer way than ever before.  Silk Road and dark websites like it remove commercial activity from the hands of violent cartels fighting over territory, from the gangland districts of US cities, and from dodgy dealings behind shady buildings.  Second, in a pragmatic sense, the apprehension and sentencing of Ulbricht has not deterred these grey market entrepreneurs.”

http://fee.org/anythingpeaceful/detail/ross-ulbricht-fool-martyr-or-trailblazer

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The Government Tells Ross Ulbricht He Owes It $183,961,921

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“In a memo on Thursday, government prosecutors imposed a money judgement against the Ulbricht equal to $183,961,921. They came to that number based on the transactional records from Silk Road showing the amount of illegal drug sales as $182,960,285 combined with the transactions for fake identification equal to $1,001,636.  The government contends Ulbricht is liable for all transactions on Silk Road because of the structure of the site. Ulbricht will be required to pay the full amount of money, which is likely not dischargeable in bankruptcy.”

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-government-tells-ross-ulbricht-he-owes-them-183961921

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Jeffrey Tucker: The Deeply Tragic Life Sentencing of Ross Ulbricht

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“If you are a tenured professor performing artificial trading experiments in a classroom and publishing your results in expensive journals, you are toasted as a genius and sometimes given prestigious prizes. If you innovate with venture capital funding and the backing of large tech firms, you are rewarded with riches and fame. But if you are a quiet geek who creates a more realistic experiment online, one that actually benefits humanity, and never sought funding from any establishment source, you are swept up in a sting operation and imprisoned for life.  As for the online markets themselves, the jailing of Ross does nothing to stop them. They are now larger than ever.”

https://tucker.liberty.me/the-deeply-tragic-jailing-of-ross-ulbricht/

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DEA agents seize black businessman’s $16K life savings; no charges filed

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“Even after a telephone call to Joseph’s mother in Detroit to corroborate his story, the agents refused to believe the young man, insisting that the money was drug-related.  Despite the fact the officers found no drugs or guns in Joseph’s luggage – and failed to charge him with any crime – they took his cash away from him under the civil asset forfeiture program.  The Justice Department’s multibillion-dollar civil asset forfeiture fund allows officers to seize a citizen’s belongings, based only on a suspicion that a person is breaking the law. Rivers claims that he was picked on by officers as he was the only black person in his section of the train.”

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3077890/Black-aspiring-businessman-16-000-life-savings-seized-DEA-never-charged-crime.html

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